Kidd Dismisses Intrigue Without Dispelling Mystery

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Jason Kidd was introduced as the coach of the Bucks, who sent the Nets two future second-round draft picks as compensation.CreditCreditJeffrey Phelps/Associated Press

By Pat Borzi

July 2, 2014

MILWAUKEE — A photograph of a smiling Jason Kidd under the phrase “Welcome to Milwaukee” shone on a video screen outside Bradley Center on Wednesday. Hardly anyone noticed. The nearby sidewalks were barren on a cold, drizzly morning as Kidd was introduced as the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Kidd, in a dark suit and maroon tie, shared a dais straddling midcourt with the owners Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry, as well as General Manager John Hammond. For a backdrop, Bradley Center officials lowered the enormous green banner honoring the team’s only N.B.A. championship, in 1971, along with the banners for the team’s seven retired jersey numbers, from No. 1 (Oscar Robertson) to No. 33 (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

Hammond introduced and heaped praise on Kidd, even though Edens and Lasry had not told Hammond they were trying to bring in Kidd to replace Coach Larry Drew until a New York Post article was published Saturday. And Kidd, in an 18-minute news conference and later with a small group of reporters, evaded questions about the circumstances prompting his divorce from the Nets.

“It’s business,” Kidd said. “That’s what it comes down to.”

Kidd denied asking for greater clout within the Nets’ organization, as had been reported, and he insisted he had been hired by the Bucks only to coach.

“It’s not about power,” Kidd said after the news conference. “I was the coach in Brooklyn, and I’m the coach here. So it’s not about power. It’s about the guys getting better. And here in Milwaukee, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Lasry and Edens, both New York-based hedge fund investors, bought the Bucks in April from the longtime owner Herb Kohl for $550 million. Lasry, formerly Kidd’s financial adviser, acknowledged that they had erred by keeping Hammond and Drew in the dark for three days after the Nets granted the Bucks permission to talk to Kidd on June 25.

“We were asked to keep it confidential, and we did,” Lasry said. “I think it was, obviously in retrospect, that was a mistake. I think we’ve learned a lot in the last couple of days about, sort of, the process of this. I think that was our fault. And we shouldn’t have done that.”

Hammond ended up handling the final negotiations with the Nets. The Bucks sent the Nets two future second-round draft choices as compensation for Kidd. Lasry confirmed that the Nets asked for a first-round choice, which the Bucks refused.

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It will be up to Kidd to win with a roster much younger than Brooklyn's.CreditJeffrey Phelps/Associated Press

The beginning of the timeline for Kidd’s move remained murky. Lasry said the Bucks had not been seeking to replace Drew until Jeff Schwartz, Kidd’s agent, contacted him to ask if they were interested in Kidd. Asked when that happened, Lasry said, “I don’t remember; I’d have to look, but it was last week.” Lasry said he was shocked that the Nets granted the Bucks permission to talk to Kidd.

Kidd said he met with Edens and Lasry last Thursday, the day of the N.B.A. draft; Kidd also appeared that day at a news conference announcing a new Nets practice center in Brooklyn.

“The process started when Jeff asked for permission and permission was granted,” Kidd said. “I talked to Wes and Mark. That’s when the ball started rolling. I liked what I heard from Wes and Mark. From there it was taken out of my hands.”

Kidd would not say whether he might still be with the Nets if not for his relationship with Lasry. Kidd had three years left on his $10.5 million contract.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t have a crystal ball.”

The courtship of Kidd and the firing of Drew — days after Milwaukee’s first-round pick, Jabari Parker of Duke, came to town and billed himself as a Buck for life — drew sharp criticism from fans. Of the more than 3,800 responses to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online poll, 61 percent sided with the columnist Michael Hunt, who disapproved of how the Bucks had handled the situation.

“It hasn’t been very positive,” Hunt said of the fans’ response.

He added: “Milwaukee is a different kind of town. There’s a sense of propriety you follow. There are things you don’t do here that are fine when it’s done in New York, Chicago and L.A. I think most people take offense by the way it happened, not involving the general manager. Integrity certainly matters here, and integrity was undermined.”

Now it will be up to Kidd to win with a roster much younger than the one he left. The Bucks finished 15-67 last season, Drew’s first, and have posted one winning record in the last 11 seasons.

Kidd thanked the Nets’ owner, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, and general manager, Billy King, for hiring him but said he departed with little regret.

“For me, I have to do what’s best,” Kidd said. “And this is what I think is best for me.”

A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: Limited Answers at an Introduction. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe